- Author: Larry Schwankl
We are facing the third-in-a-row, below average rainfall year and 2013–14 has started out as the worst of the 3 years. With the State's reservoirs depleted, many irrigation districts will be delivering little to no water to their customers. That leaves groundwater as the remaining water source for those fortunate enough to have wells.
When water is in short supply, growers have few good options. Annual crop growers may choose to idle land when water is not available, but tree and vine growers, and alfalfa growers, have a crop in the ground that needs water.
So what does an alfalfa grower do during a drought? Luckily, information is available on making the best use of any available water and if the...
- Author: Daniel H Putnam
OK, so your truck got a flat, the cows got out, and you were unable to attend the 2013 alfalfa shin-dig in Reno this year??
If you were not among the nearly 600 attendees, 35 speakers, and >70 exhibitors at the 2013 Western Alfalfa & Forage Symposium, now’s the time to log-in and see many of the presentations on–line.
It’s not quite the same as meeting with your friends in the hallway, perusing the latest technologies from the exhibit hall, participating in the exciting CAFA Auction, or asking questions of the speakers... but you can get a flavor of the meeting this way, from the comfort of your own home!
Please see the complete listing of the symposium talks...
- Author: Lisa Blecker
- Author: Maria Alfaro
By law, fieldworkers and pesticide handlers must be trained in basic pesticide safety and personal protection, but who trains their trainers? Pesticide Safety Education Coordinator Lisa Blecker will be giving Train the Trainer workshops in 2014 in various locations around the state. The purpose of these workshops is to teach and certify individuals to provide pesticide safety training to fieldworkers and pesticide handlers. Participants learn pesticide basics, laws and regulations that pertain to worker safety, required elements they must include in a pesticide safety training, and effective teaching methods for adult learners. During the course of the workshops,...
- Author: Daniel H Putnam
- Author: William Matthews
- Author: Daniel A Sumner
For those of you not yet convinced that we live in an increasingly international economy, button up your Dacca-made parka– globalization is bringing alfalfa and hay crops increasingly into the world of global trade.
If you don’t know where Dacca is– look it up on your Shenzhen-made iPhone!
While many crops (corn, wheat, soybeans, almonds and citrus) have long been traded on the world market, forages have been historically fed within a few miles of the animals they nourished (Figure 1). After all, hay and silage are bulky commodities.
Figure 1. Hay has historically been grown a short distance from the animals it... |
- Author: Michelle Leinfelder-Miles
At the Alfalfa and Forage Meeting held at the Kearney Agricultural Center in September, we provided a demonstration of the co-existence of Roundup Ready® (RR) and conventional alfalfa hay fields. The demonstration took place between two hay fields – one of them RR and the other conventional – that were in their third year of production and separated only by a one-lane dirt road. The demonstration showed what is meant by “co-existence”; the RR trait has not transferred to the adjacent conventional hay field or to a nearby organic hay field. All of the fields are co-existing in close proximity, and the RR trait is only found in the RR field. We used commercially-available test strips that detect the CP4 EPSPS...